Circles
by F.M.Queen
Summary: "And together rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after." Until someone stole their happiness away. Stole her away in the night… After Felicity is kidnapped Oliver is forced to return to Starling City and join back up with Team Arrow to find her. [Olicity]
1. Prologue - How Lyla Tells The Story

**Summary** : "And together rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after." Until someone stole their happiness away. Stole her away in the night… After Felicity is kidnapped Oliver is forced to return to Starling City and join back upp with Team Arrow to find her. (Olicity)

 **A/N:** I'm not sure if Lyla has forgiven Oliver or not, but I do think she is more forgiving than Diggle. Because Diggle is really not an Oliver fan right now. Which I get. Kidnapping Lyla was not very nice. Leaving Sara alone, also not cool. But maybe Diggle and Oliver can get past some of that if they're forced to work together to get someone they love (Felicity) back. Also Oliver getting a taste of his own medicine - having the woman he loves kidnapped (again)- might give both Oliver and Diggle some perspectives. **  
**

 **Prologue**

"Once upon a time, there was a brave prince. A hero. Only he didn't think he was a hero himself, not at first. He had a best friend who always had his back," Lyla told Sara as she rocked her. "His best friend was a hero too. He'd been a soldier and was looking for a purpose. And the hero had a mission. To save his kingdom from evil doers. So they joined forces. Became brothers in arms."

Sara gurgled and looked expectantly at her mother. "What about a princess you ask? Well there was a princess. Actually there were two. Sisters. And they both loved the prince. Which made things complicated. There was also a very smart...sorceress. She could look into a magic crystal ball and find out lots of things the hero needed to find the bad guys. She was his friend."

"The prince and his two friends fought many villains, survived losses and shared their troubles. The prince fell out of love with the princesses and in love with his friend the sorceress. But when an evil king from a far away place came to try and make the prince the heir of his evil kingdom, the trio's friendship was tested. Because in order for the prince to defeat the evil king, he had to become someone almost as evil as the king. He couldn't tell his friends this, because he feared it would put them in danger and jeopardize his plan and so they thought he'd truly become evil. In the end, when the evil king was defeated the sorceress - who loved the prince very much - was able to forgive him for his deceit. But his best friend, who had always trusted him, who he had shared so much with could not."

"Ubabma," Sara said.

"Is that right? You think the story should end happily? Well it did. Because the prince and the sorceress decided they loved each other very much. And together rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after," Lyla finished. "But it has a sad ending too. Because they left their friend behind, hurting and angry. But one day, they'll come back, and make things right. That's right. One day they'll come back, and Daddy will stop being grumpy."

* * *

More coming soon!


	2. Chapter 1 - Happily Ever After?

**A/N:** So this chapter is just mostly fluffy Olicity because they deserve some happiness before I rip it all away...muahahah (that was my evil laughter of impending doom. I would make a great super villain.) Hope you like! This what I'm hoping Oliver and Felicity will be doing for like the whole five month hiatus (OMG it's too long, I can't take it. At least I'll get one last dose of Flash before that ends too.)

 **Chapter One**

-San Diego-

* * *

*Felicity*

* * *

"Are we living happily ever after?" Felicity asked as she dug her toes into the sand, leaning back against Oliver's bare chest. "Because if we are I think I'd like it to include you rubbing sunscreen all over me. Which you really should have offered to do already because I know you don't want a lobster for a girlfriend. Or maybe you do. But you definitely don't want a girlfriend with skin cancer. I had a like uncle or something that had cancer. He wasn't really my uncle, he was actually one of my mom's boyfriends, which means me calling him uncle is kind of weird when I think about it. Anyway... He had cancer and it was nasty. We only saw him like twice after he got it but I'm telling you it wasn't pretty. Sure it wasn't skin cancer but most forms of cancer are rather unpleasant. In fact I think all of them-"

"Felicity," Oliver said. "Breathe."

She did and kind of forgot about the importance of sun screen, then said, "This is nice."

"Except for the possibility of skin cancer and you turning into a lobster," Oliver offered.

"Right. And my bikini is kind of clammy," she said, turning to look up at him. "Not that I'm complaining. I mean I was the one that wanted a beach. I just didn't remember beaches being this..."

"Sunny?"

"Sandy," she pouted.

"It's a beach Felicity. That kind of implies sand."

"I know." She closed her eyes and wished she had her sunglasses - or any kind of glasses because without them she couldn't fully enjoy the awesomeness that was bare chested Oliver Queen - but she'd forgotten them in the car.

"Do you want to leave?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her, pulling her closer.

"Not before you fulfill a long standing fantasy of mine which involves you rubbing sunscreen all over me. Only in my fantasy there are usually less people around." She glared at a family which included no less than four kids and two sets of grandparents camped out a dozen yards away.

Oliver shook his head, in that way he did when he was trying to be annoyed with her but really thought she was cute. It was one of his most common head shakes.

He leaned down close to her ear and whispered, "Or we could go back to the hotel. Less sand. Less people. More us. Win-win."

"Yes, and you can just rub me down when we get to the hotel," Felicity said. "That came out wrong. Or actually right. Hey, another perk to dating you. No more awkwardness. Okay maybe there will be some, I mean with me awkward is kind of a given but not..." She trailed and took a deep breath, realizing she was getting totally off topic. "Yes. I want to go back to the hotel." she said, happily, since Oliver's hands all over her beat sitting on a sandy, sunny beach any day.

Decision made, they packed up in record time and two minutes later they were heading towards their convertible. How Oliver had managed to keep that car when most everything else he owned had been lost when Queen Consolidated when to hell, she didn't know, but she was glad. Because you know; the awesomeness factor.

Oliver suddenly seemed suddenly far away, thinking about things he couldn't change she was sure. This was her least favorite look on him, even if brooding could be hot, on Oliver it hurt her heart.

"I love you," she said, grabbing his hand, because touching him and telling him she loved him seemed to snap him out of those kinds of moods. Most of the time.

He smiled, and squeezed her hand. "Me too."

She leaned close to him and just soaked in the feeling of being with him and being happy. Having always been a very logical person, with somewhat lacking interpersonal skills, Felicity had never believed in this kind of love. Not all consuming, the world will end if we're apart, I'll die if you die, everything is just so freaking much better with you around, love she'd found with Oliver. And that was even before they'd run away together. Started their happily ever after.

Now she couldn't imagine how she had ever lived any other way. Well of course she could remember her old dull and colorless life. Not that it had seemed so at the time, yet now when she knew this wonderful feeling, the way being with Oliver made the world, her old life seemed like nothing but boring tedious routine.

Most of all though, she she was terrified of it ending. Of Oliver being taken from her; of his past catching up to him or some present day heroic he decided to engage in, would get him killed.

"And yes," he said suddenly as they reached the car. He squeezed her hand and leaned down to kiss her.

"Yes, what?" She asked as he pulled back.

"Yes. We're living our happily ever after."

* * *

*Oliver*

* * *

"What is it?" Felicity asked as he looked into the rear view mirror for the seventh time.

"I'm not sure," he said, because he wasn't. Because he was most likely being paranoid. No one knew them here. No one was after them. Yet he couldn't help but to look again, and this time to memorize the licence plate. Then the car turned towards another hotel. He swallowed and decided he was freaking out over nothing. He was being paranoid. "It's nothing."

"Relax," Felicity said and patted his knee. "Those ID's we got are foolproof and I got my phone and tablet on stand-by to report any things to do with Oliver Queen and San Diego. No one is after us. No bad guys even know where we are. No reporters." Not that reporters really cared much about him now that he was poor and Roy had taken responsibility for being the Arrow.

"You're right," Oliver agreed, but he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to stop being paranoid. It was too much in his nature now, having been on guard for too many years, on the look out for danger. There was no way to turn it off. Maybe with time it would fade. Time with Felicity. That sounded like a good plan.

"Of course I'm right," Felicity agreed as he turned into the parking lot of their hotel. It wasn't as fancy as the ones he used to frequent in his playboy billionaire days, but it was nice and much to his annoyance payed for by money Felicity had made working for Ray Palmer - since Oliver's own bank account consisted mostly of zeroes these days. "I'm right almost all the time. Like ninety-nine percent of the time. Or maybe not, since it was my idea to go to the beach. So maybe like ninety-five percent of the time. Which is still better than you since you're hardly ever right. Like going off to fight evil assassins and trying to kill yourself for the greater good. But you do get points for not letting me get all burned to a crisp on the beach..."

Oliver smiled and once again marveled at how happy he felt. It had been two weeks since they drove off into the sunset and he was still happy. He'd thought maybe it would fade away and he'd go back to worrying, back to feeling like he had to save everyone. But he'd come to the decision to let that part of his life go, to not be the Arrow, and he knew it was the right one. Everyday he knew it was the right one. Even if he was still paranoid about things, and worried his past would catch up with him and get Felicity hurt. But he never regretted leaving his old life. He missed Thea and wished things with Diggle could have ended better but so far he hadn't wished to go back once. This was what life was supposed to be like.

Happy.

* * *

I almost feel bad for the fact that I'm going to ruin Oliver's new found happiness, like it's some sort of blasphemous act against Olicity...


	3. Chapter 2 - Like Air

**A/N:** So according to the sources I could find Oliver's eight star "Bratva" tattoo means "Honor Thy Father" and I was going to attempt to work that in, but in the end it just ended up being the "Bratva" tattoo.

 **Two**

* * *

*Oliver*

* * *

"I'm going to see if I can give your tattoo a hickey before we start round two," Felicity said, sliding down slightly, nibbling his neck and chest along the way. She stopped at the scar left by the bullet his mother had put in him, a forever reminder of the night he'd told Felicity his secret, giving it an extra kiss.

Oliver wasn't sure how he felt about Felicity attempting to give his Bratva tattoo a hickey. Even though she's seen it - along with every other scar and permanent mark on his body - he wasn't sure if she knew what it meant. Not that he was sure it defining him as a member of the Russian mob would matter.

"Felicity, I'm not-" Oliver began, then drew in a deep breath as her mouth found its intended mark. "I. what, that, Felicity."

"Usually I'm the one speaking in sentence fragments when we do this!" she said as she pulled away and grinned. Then she went back to her mission. Not for too long though since the suckling and nibbling quickly made him ready for "round two" and soon she was the one spluttering nonsense as he made her climax for the fourth time since they'd returned to the hotel.

"I am never again going to have to do cardio," she said breathlessly a while later. "I need food. Don't you need food? Of course you don't. You survived five years on a deserted Island."

"Actually it was more like one year. And it wasn't that deserted."

"Still," Felicity said as she reached for the hotel take-out menu. "What did you eat? Is it okay for me to ask that? I mean you don't have to tell me. You can like kick me and tell me I'm being too nosy. Not really though because if you kicked me you'd probably crush my liver or some other vital organ. Did you have to eat like bugs?"

"It's okay to ask," he said as he put on boxers and a T-shirt. He wasn't the kind of guy who stayed naked, even when he was supposedly somewhere safe. He still felt like he had to be able to run or fight at a moment's notice. "In the beginning it was pretty rough. We ate stuff we could hunt. Birds. Some small animals. Lots of roots. And once or twice bugs. Then food we stole."

He kind of expected her to make a face at the thought of eating bugs, but she just looked happy. And sexy, since she, unlike him had no problem staying naked and the sheet was pooled around her waist and her breasts playing peek-a-boo with him from behind the take out menu. "I once ate a worm, because Tina McKenzie dared me too," she said after a few more moments and then blushed. "I was five."

"Tommy dared me to eat a grasshopper once," he shared, surprised that the memory didn't hurt. And a bit startled to realize he had no idea who Tina McKenzie was. Had she been Felicity's best friend growing up? A neighbour? He sat back down on the bed, close to her. "Tell me more about Tina McKenzie."

Felicity looked away from him and down at the menu."Do you want pancakes? Or waffles? I think I want eggs too. Do you think they'll let us order breakfast even though it's almost dinner time? I think they might because-"

"Tell me about your friend Felicity, please? I want to know about your past, and you almost never talk about it. In that way we are surprisingly alike."

"Tina wasn't my friend," Felicity said, letting go of the menu and pulling the sheet up to cover herself. "She was...well, let's just say she wasn't very nice to me."

"I'm sorry," he said. He knew Felicity hadn't been normal as a child, and she certainly hadn't had all the privileges he's taken for granted, but thinking about it made him sad for her.

"It's fine," she said, looking at him again. "It was a long time ago and my depressing childhood is not important."

"It is to me," Oliver said as her stomach growled. "Let's order some food before you starve to death though."

They did, and the hotel was more than happy to make them breakfast for dinner - and Oliver, unable to decide on one thing just decided they would have every breakfast food on the menu. Felicity found his discarded beach shirt, underwear and one sock which she put on - the ensemble making her look adorable and very young.

Oliver yawned even though it wasn't that late, and was suddenly glad he was in bed. Felicity suddenly swayed and missed a step, almost falling. It took his brain a few moments to process and before he could ask if she was okay she smiled.

"I'm fine. Just a little dizzy. I guess my blood sugar must be way low." She made it over to the bed, sitting down and then quickly lying down next to him.

"Now tell me; if Tina McKenzie wasn't your friend, who was?"

"Nuhu," she said, moving closer to him. "I told you about Tina. No you tell me something."

"Like twenty-questions?" He asked, amused.

"No, not quite. Just stories. From the past." He smiled and opened his mouth but she put a finger over his lips. "But I don't want to hear any nasty stories about you getting caught with your pants down in the wine cellar."

"That never happened," he said.

"How come I,"she said slowly. "Don't believe that. For a second."

"Seriously it never did." He pulled her a little closer to him. "Our wine cellar has a second door that leads to the garage."

"Seriously? That must be one big wine cellar," she said sleepily. Oliver almost said he'd show it to her, but realized that wouldn't be happening. The Queen Mansion no longer belonged to him. Or anyone. It was still in some sort of company probate thing.

"Are you tired too Olivier? I'm really tired," Felicity said, yawning and settling her head on a pillow, all but burrowing into it.

He nodded.

He was tired.

Unnaturally tired.

He blinked, tried to get himself to move, but he could barely make himself life his arm. He tried to figure out why. What possible reason? Poison? But they hadn't eaten anything but the sandwiches they'd bought for lunch and the hotel's breakfast buffet. Both had been too long for them to be feeling the affects of it so suddenly. Looking up he realized what the only possible source for their tiredness could be.

"AC," he whispered. "The AC Felicity. Something is wrong with the air." He turned to her, but she wasn't awake any longer. He tried to say her name again, but suddenly found he was too tired. Too tired. He tried to blink, but found once he closed his eyes he couldn't open them back up again.

Far-far away he heard knocking and someone calling, "Room service." Except Oliver somehow knew, it was not room service outside. It was someone coming to hurt them.

He forced himself to open his eyes. Looking at Felicity's still form. He had to get up. He had to fight. For her. He closed his eyes again and when he opened them again, seconds, minutes, hours later, he couldn't be sure, the bed was empty.

Felicity was gone.

* * *

I tried really hard to think of how I would attempt to best Oliver in combat - and figured the only really chance would be to somehow incapacitate him. So that's what I did...


	4. Chapter 3 - Needing Felicity

**A/N** : OMG! We (Sweden) won Eurovision song contest! Go Heroes (By Måns Zelmerlöw)! Someone totally have to make an Olicity video with that song - I mean the title alone should qualify it right; Heroes (also this bit of lyrics " _We are the heroes of our time. But we're dancing with the demons in our minds_ ") don't you guys agree?! OMG I'm so excited!

 **Chapter Three**

* * *

*Oliver*

* * *

Oliver knew he was dreaming. He alway knew; it was a trick he'd had to teach himself years ago or else he'd never have gotten any sleep at all. Knowing he was dreaming however didn't make it feel any less real. He could tell he was dreaming and at the same feel it as if it was as real as being a awak.

* * *

 _"I'm happy for you Ollie," Laurel was saying. "You deserve to be happy."_

 _"Thanks."_

 _"It's too bad it won't last though," she says. She's not trying to be cruel though, just honest._

 _"You don't know Felicity." Oliver says. "She's not like you and me. She fights for different reasons. For different things. She fights for life. She's good."_

 _"For now." Laurel smiles at him, and it's not cruel, just sad. "But what happens when she becomes like you? What happens when you destroy her? What happens when you steal her light?"_

 _"That won't happen," Oliver says, even though this is his greatest fear._

 _"It will," Laurel says. Then she's not Laurel anymore._

 _She's Felicity._

 _She's in one of the red dresses he loves on her. He smiles, because that's what Felicity does to him; makes him smile, makes him happy._

 _"One day, all the darkness you carry will destroy me," Felicity says._

 _"No."_

 _She nods sadly."Yes. It will. You've already taken so much from me. Changed me. Am I even the same girl you met three years ago?" Felicity takes a step towards him and the red dress she's been wearing, the high heels, the straight shiny hair changes into a pink shirt, the heels into her panda flats, the hair becomes a ponytail. "And that's just the outside. The things you can see."_

 _"You are still the same," he tells Felicity, even though there is a part of him that realizes she has changed. But she is still Felicity. She's still...young. Still innocent about so much of the world, despite the darkness he's brought into her life. He longs to keep her that way; for her to never become him, Sara or Laurel or his sister. For her to stay Felicity. "You are Felicity. I won't let that change. I won't let anyone change you."_

 _"You can't promise that."_

 _"Yes I can. I will." He knows he can. He has to keep her safe. Has to keep her Felicity._

 _"You have already failed so many times," she says. "Made me change. One day, when I change to much, what then?"_

 _"You won't. I won't let anyone hurt you."_

 _She smiles."What about you? You're the one who have hurt me the most. How can you keep me safe from yourself?"_

 _"I will. Somehow I will."_

 _She stops."You sure about that?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"Sure you want to protect me? That you can?"_

 _"Always."_

 _She looks deep into his eyes for a moment. She nods and says, "Then wake up."_

 _He does and remembers he is living his worst nightmare._

* * *

He cursed as he managed to sit up, not believing he could have let himself fall back asleep after realizing Felicity was gone. Whatever they'd pumped in through the AC must have been strong and they must have kept it on for a long time, because as he checked his phone it was past nine in the morning. When had they been drugged and she taken? Thirteen hours ago? Twelve? That seemed about right. That was twelve hours lost. Twelve hours to find Felicity he'd slept away.

He scanned the room quickly, hoping for a clue.

Nothing was gone.

Nothing but Felicity.

He did a quick walk through and noted that the door and lock was fine - must have been opened with a key card - and nothing had been turned over or destroyed since there had been no struggle. She'd been unconscious when they took her. Unconscious and wearing only underwear and one of his shirts. That meant they couldn't just have walked her through the lobby at gunpoint, even if they had somehow woken her up. But she'd probably been kept unconscious, so she'd have had to have been carried. That meant limited exit strategies.

He found Felicity's tablet. One of the reasons they'd picked this hotel was the lack of security cameras. The only place with cameras in this place was the stairwells, and Felicity had hacked those. Tapping in the code for Felicity's tablet he quickly found the cameras he was looking for. It took him a few tries before he found a way to rewind them and once he did he found all they showed from five in the afternoon to ten at night, was static.

"Damn," he swore and almost threw the tablet across the room. But it was Felicity's and he knew she spent obscene amounts of time upgrading and rebuilding her devices so that they would run the way she wanted.

If Felicity had been there she would have hacked the security cameras in the parking lot or in the hotel next to theirs, or from an ATM. Or she would have found a way to get the erased footage back. She would have gotten him a license plate, a name, a address. Something.

But Felicity wasn't here.

Oliver spend a few moments trying to think how he would have handled this before he'd met Felicity. Talked to the staff? Wait for whoever had taken her to make contact and see what they wanted from him?

Oliver wasn't sure. Frankly, without Felicity he felt like finding her would be impossible. Stupid; he needed Felicity to save Felicity.

* * *

Reviews are loved!


	5. Chapter 4 - Chilling Encounters

**A/N:** So I'm a little sad because I got my grade for the Creative Writing class I took this semester and I only got a B. *tear* Still better than a C :P

 **A/N 2** : Been re-plotting this story like three times, because I can't decided what I want to do with it. I want plenty of Oliver/ Felicity moments and angst, there will be some Damien Darhk, possibly Connor showing up, bro bonding for Oliver and Dig and Thea (because I love Thea.) I think I got it now so hopefully I will be able to write more!

 **Chapter 4**

* * *

*Felicity*

* * *

Felicity was not used to waking up feeling cold cold. In fact as of late she'd gotten used to waking up rather warm - either from being wrapped around Oliver or because he'd pulled the blankets up around her as he left the bed. He did that far more often than she'd have liked, and she often wondered how much he actually slept. She guessed learning to live on very little sleep was just one of the things that you had to learn to do after being stranded on an Island - and god knows what else - for five years.

So the cold was unfamiliar and unpleasant. It was also confusing, last thing she remembered was being with Oliver. Oliver wouldn't have ever let anything happen to her.

Only as she fully regained consciousness she realized something most definitely had happened. Because she was not only cold; she was zip-tied to a chair.

An uncomfortable chair on top of that. She tried to look around to determine her location but her glasses were missing making deciding where she was hard since most of it was blurry. A warehouse or basement, judging by the dark, cold and drip-drip of water.

"Hello?" she called, then felt stupid. Oliver or Sara or Laurel would have found a way to use the fact that they'd been left alone to escape or at least make a plan. But Felicity just wanted to know she hadn't been left all alone in a basement, wearing only one of Oliver's shirts, zip-tied to a chair. Even if whoever showed up when she called was probably not going to be someone whom she wanted to make friends with, at least if someone showed off she'd know she hadn't been forgotten.

"You're being silly," she whispered to herself. Why would someone bother with kidnapping her - which was what she was guessing had happened, even if she couldn't understand how; Oliver was a very light sleeper - just to forget about her. "You're going to be fine."

"I wouldn't count on that," a voice from the shadows said, and Felicity had never wanted to have 20/20 vision as bad as she did just then. Then again if she could see her captor that would mean he was far more likely to kill her. Something she hadn't known before joining team arrow; it's good when kidnappers were hiding their faces.

Even though she was dying to ask who he was, why she was there and beg him to let her go, she didn't. She kept quiet, waiting for the man in the shadows to ask what he was going to ask, say what he was going to say. Yet another thing she hadn't known before meeting Oliver - you should let the guys that captured you ask you the questions and try to figure out what they want based on what they ask. So despite the fact that her strong suit was not keeping quiet and situations that made her nervous tended to make her babble, she shut up.

"Don't worry too much though," the voice said again and she realized that the voice was not coming from the man in the shadows. It was coming from a speaker and it had been altered - kind of in the same way they altered Oliver's voice when he was the arrow to make it urnrengeobazible.

Felicity quickly decided there were one man in the room - keeping watch over her - and one man on the speaker - who was there to ask questions. Well, he wasn't actually there-there.

"As long as you help us out, no harm will come to you Miss. Smoak." The voice sounded rather friendly. As if this was a normal conversation to be having. "You may call me Mr. Smith."

They knew her name? Not surprising when she thought about it, they had taken her right from under the nose of Oliver. So they probably knew he was the Arrow and had prepared for that when they came for her. The question was why? What did they want with her? She decided it couldn't be anything good and that she was going to do her best to be difficult, look for a way to escape or send a signal to Oliver, then just wait for him to come for her. He always came for her.

"I'm not going to help you," Felicity said, unable to stick to her shutting up plan. "In fact, unless you let me go right now, you are both going to end up very dead."

"Because you think your 'friend' the Arrow, Mr. Oliver Queen, is coming to rescue you?" Mr.'Smith' said. The man in the shadows moved forward. He was wearing a black ski masked, which she guessed was good, if you believed the whole not letting you see their faces is a good thing. "I'm sorry to tell you that won't be happening."

Felicity said nothing, because why would she argue when she knew Oliver would be coming for her. In fact it was probably better if Mr. Smith thought he was safe. But he wasn't. Oliver would find her.

"You don't believe me. You should; my friend, Mr Jones here put three bullets in his chest last night," Mr. Smith said. "Not even self proclaimed superheroes can survive that."

"No," she said, looking over at the ski mask guy aka Mr. Jones. He looked like any other tough, dark clothes, big shoulders. Oliver had beaten a hundred like him. Just the thought of him being able to hurt Oliver was preposterous. "Oliver is not dead," Felicity said, because she couldn't believe that. Wouldn't. If Oliver was dead, then… she had no idea what would happen then. But it didn't matter, because Oliver couldn't be dead.

"Because if he was, you would know? Feel it in your heart. Most young lovers say this, but how would you really? Your hearts are not connected, not for real. You're quite the clever girl, you know the heart is nothing but a muscle and that all these things you feel are simply caused by chemicals in your brain," Mr. Smith said, sounding like Felicity's eighth grade science teacher. He was one of the few sciences teacher she'd never liked.

"You talk more than I do," Felicity said, her eyes against her will moved to glare at Mr. Jones. "You did not kill Oliver. Oliver is not dead."

Mr. Jones, she was pretty sure smiled, even if it was hard to tell under the ski mask.

"Believe what you want. Help is not coming. You either help me with my little venue, or Mr. Jones will be forced to become rather unpleasant," Mr. Smith said, and a scalpel appeared in Mr. Jones's hand.

Felicity felt herself break out in a cold sweat. Even with spending so much time around 'pointy things' over the past two and a half years, she still didn't like them. Especially when guys with ski masks were holding them and probably thinking up ways to hurt her with them.

"What you want?" she asked, her voice shrill.

Mr. Smith chuckled over the speaker. "Scared little one? Don't be. As long as you agree to help me in my venture Mr. Jones will behave. If not -" Mr. Jones leaned forward trailing the blunt side of the blade down her face, down her neck, then down to her right hand. Felicity did her best to stop breathing, afraid any sudden movement make the knife dig into her.

But Mr. Jones clearly was very good with knives and not once did the blade actually cut her. That didn't mean it made her any less terrified.

"Please stop," she said, as Mr. Jones trailed the knife over her zip cuffed wrists, down over her hand and her fingers.

"Now Miss. Smoak, this job I have in mind for you should be easy for a woman of your skills. You hack federal databases all the time. I don't think hacking a nuclear plant should pose much of a challenge to you."

"Nuclear plant?" Felicity asked, her attention momentarily taken away from the knife.

"Yes. Don't worry. I have the noblest of intentions," Mr. Smith said. "Well, noble might be stretching things a bit."

"No," she said shakily. Hacking into an armoured truck or finding a safe house of a mobster might be something she'd do to save her own or the life of someone she cared about, but hacking a nuclear plant… that was bad. That could lead to the deaths of millions, not to mention the potential repercussions to the environment and society if someone managed to set off a chain reaction in one. Felicity's father had been very anti nuclear power, (one of the few things she really remembered about him other than him teaching her math meant for ten year olds when she was five) and she knew what horrible consequences a nuclear explosion or meltdown could have.

"You disappoint me Miss. Smoak. Normally this would be the time my associate put that scalpel straight through your hand," Mr. Smith said, as Mr. Jones turned the knife so it was pointing straight down at her helpless zip-tied hand. "We've found this to be very effective. But since you will be needing both your hands in working order to do your hacking… I believe something a little different is in order. A little time out. To give you time to think it over. To realize your preasues Oliver isn't coming and cooperating is for the best."

Mr. Jones moved his scalpel, and for a moment Felicity was sure he was totally going to disregard his boss's order and stab her, but instead he just cut the zip ties off. Snip, snip and she was free. Now Mr. Jones was however pointing a gun at her, so there really wasn't much to do with this new freedom.

"Walk," Mr. Jones said, his voice wasn't muffled, but sounded almost as if it was. A heavy smoker.

Felicity walked, her bare feet on concrete. She was fairly sure she'd been wearing a sock when she was taken. She wondered where it was. Then she wondered where Oliver was. Because he wasn't dead. She knew he wasn't. Yet...worry nagged at her. Because Oliver wouldn't have let anyone take her...unless he was too badly hurt to stop it. Or dead. No. Oliver was not dead. That was not possible.

"Stop," Mr. Jones said. She did, looking up and realizing she'd been about to walk straight into a closed door. Not any kind of door either; it was a door leading to an industrial sized freezer fridge. The kind that was as big as a whole room and they stored whole animal carcases.

"Open it."

She shook her head and tried to figure out where the strange sounds were suddenly coming from. Then she realized it was her, crying while trying not to, making sounds much like a small wounded animals. She tried to stop it, as Mr. Jones pushed the gun into her back and since she clearly wasn't going to do it, reached forward to open the fridge.

Do something, she told herself. Think like Oliver. What would he do.

But it was too late. Mr Jones had already given her a hard shove into the cold metal room and slammed the door shut, leaving her all alone in the dark - except for the faint glow of one lone bulb - metal box.

It wasn't below freezing, but it couldn't be much above. Felicity guessed it was maybe forty degrees F. Maybe forty-five. Cold enough to make her shiver and for her teeth to shatter but probably not enough to give her frostbite or kill her. Felicity was no expert on things like exposure or hypothermia but she was fairly sure it took a while for it to kill you. So she had some time before she was in any immediate danger. Not that she thought her kidnappers would keep her in here that long. They needed her. They'd gone to a lot of trouble to get her.

Putting her arms under her armpits to keep them warm - because just like Mr. Smith had said; a Hacker needs her hands and wished for shoes, as she looked around. The freezer was completely empty. No food. No canned goods. (Thankfully) no dead animals either. There weren't even racks or hooks or anything that she could have used as a weapon (if she had been the kind of girl that easily made weapons out of things like that. Which she wasn't.) Neither was there a thermostat or some sort of electrical thingie meant to move hanging meat around (which she could have made something out.)

"This sucks," she said having quickly realized that even with all her considerable IQ points, there was nothing she could do, no way for her to affect her situation. All she could do was wait; either for Oliver to come for her or Mr. Jones to return. Too bad she freaking hated waiting.

* * *

*Mr. Jones*

* * *

"Interesting girl, wouldn't you say?" Mr. Jones's employer said over the phone. "And not easily fooled. But then again, her Mr. Queen have survived quite a few bullets, so I suppose her unwavering faith in his survival is not entirely unfounded."

"Why didn't you just let me kill him then Mr. Darhk?" Mr. Jones asked, thinking of the unconscious Mr. Queen he'd left behind when he took the girl. "It would have been easy."

"Of course it would have been," Mr. Darhk said. "But it wasn't the right time for Mr. Queen to lose his life. I have plans for him. Besides all I wanted was to see how my daughter would react if he did die. She had trouble accepting it the first time but I needed to know if her feelings of love could be turned into feeling of revenge if it did happen. But she wouldn't accept his death this time either. That is interesting too."

Mr. Jones shrugged not understanding at all. Mr. Jones thought for example that Mr. Darhk kidnapping his own daughter was a rather strange thing to do. But there was a reason Mr. Jones watched people Mr. Darhk had kidnapped and needed information from while Mr. Darhk made all the big plans.

"She said no to helping you though," Mr. Jones said. "That's not good, is it?"

"Oh Mr. Jones." Mr. Darhk laughed. "If she had agreed to help us, I would have known she wasn't the right one."

"I don't understand," Mr. Jones said.

"Let me speak plainer then. If she had agreed to hack a nuclear plantation for a man she thought a criminal, I would have told you to slit her throat. Clear enough?"

"Yes sir," Mr. Jones said, even more confused than before.

* * *

Hey, does anyone remember if team Arrow know about Oliver's dad killing himself on the life raft? I think Oliver hinted at it with Diggle, but can't remember.

Reviews are loved!


	6. Chapter 5 - Thea, the Computer Hacker

**A/N** : Whoops exams and lots of summer stuff happened and this story kind of got put on the back burner. But now I'm back (most because it's been raining and midsummer holiday) but I'll try to update once a week from now on (or sooner).

 **Chapter 5**

* * *

*Oliver*

* * *

He laid back down on the bed, breathing in the faint trace of Felicity that still lingered on her pillow. She'd been right there, in his arms. Safe. And she'd been taken from him right here. Right from his arms. He pretended for a moment she was out on the small balcony or in the shower or getting them coffee. That she wasn't gone. That she'd be back in a moment. Back in his arms. The fantasy was nice, helped him formulate a plan. Because to get her back - and he would get her back - he'd need help.

He reached for his phone and found Thea's number. Thea knew something about computers. She wasn't in the same league - or even universe - as Felicity of course, but at that moment Oliver would take any help he could get.

He knew he should press the call button, but as soon as he called Thea and told her, Felicity being missing would be real. After calling he could no longer let himself forget even for a second. But he needed help.

He pressed the button. Thea answered on the second ring. "Olie!" she said cheerfully.

"Felicity is gone," he said, looking around the room, wishing it had been trashed. Wished he could trash it himself, to went some of the anger and helplessness he was feeling.

"What you do?" Thea asked.

"No." Oliver got up off the bed. "Not gone as in left of her own free will. Gone as in taken. Right from under my nose." He balled his free hand up in a fist and wondered just how bad it would hurt if he punched through the wall. Not to bad, it was a interior wall. Mostly plaster. It wouldn't hurt nearly enough for it to take his mind of Felicity being gone.

"Okay, what can I do?" she asked. He was glad she didn't ask; how? How could you let it happen, how could you let someone take her? But he was sure she was thinking it.

"The cameras here were wiped. Maybe you could see if you could get that footage back, and then run whoever took her through facial recognition? Or check the parking lot or banks across the street. Get a plate, track the car."

Thea said nothing for a few moments.

"What?" he barked.

"Olie, I'm not Fe-" she paused. "I'm not that good. I can use the databases Felicity already hacked and some basic stuff but I can't do any of the fancy stuff she did," Thea said carefully.

"Fine, what can you do?" Oliver said, knowing it wasn't Thea's fault, but still pissed she couldn't do it.

"If you have a name or a photo or a plate I could run that through the databases we have. Lyla could maybe help through some of her ARGUS contacts," Thea said.

"I'm don't think Lyla wants to do me any favours," Oliver said, rubbing his forehead.

"She would be doing it for Felicity. Besides, Mrs. Diggles isn't the one you should be worried about," Thea said.

"Can you access Felicity's tablet from your computer? She's already in the system," he said, picking up the tablet.

"I should be able to."

"Can you see if the footage was wiped after it was recorded or if the cameras were disabled before?"

"That matters?"

Oliver put the tablet down. "Maybe."

"I'm in the hotel's database. Ocean Log Hotel," she said. '

He moved over to look at the bedside table. Felicity's glasses were missing and the case. He was sure they had been there.

"Her glasses are missing."

"What?"

"Her glasses."

"That's good, right?" Thea said. "Mean they probably want her for something. Something she needs to see to do. Something computer related maybe?"

"Maybe."

"What room are you in?"

"608. King. Mr and Mrs," Oliver said.

"Mr. and Mrs. Really?"

"Felicity made the IDs," Oliver said, dismissively. He wanted her to get information, not chat. He needed her to get something. He need somewhere to start. Some trail to follow.

"Maybe she's telling you something?" Thea suggested.

"The IDs- Wait. The plate," he said, suddenly remembering the car that he had worried was following them the previous day when Felicity had reassured him their IDs were good. "I got a plate you can run." He rattled off the numbers and letters.

"Okay. Good. I'll run that and see what I can do about the surveillance stuff. There don't seem to be a lot of cameras though," Thea said.

"Just get me something Thea." He took a breath. "As fast as you possibly can."

* * *

*Felicity*

* * *

Felicity decided she would help Mr. "Smith" - or at least pretend to - so she'd be able to get access to a computer. She figured she'd be able to stall enough to get a message out. To Oliver. Or if that wasn't possible, to Thea. Thea had taken over running the computers, to some extent, for Team Arrow and getting access to a computer Felicity had already used to hack a similar network by backtracking through her own hack from the computer she hopefully would get access to would be easier than attempting to hack Oliver's phone.

She'd just have to make sure to stall convincingly so she didn't "accidentally" give the guy access to a nuclear plant. Hopefully nuclear plants had good security - since, you know, they could blow up the world - but if the way most federal databases was set up was any indication it wouldn't be that difficult. Not for her.

Still when Mr. Jones came back she'd tell him she would help them. It was the best plan. Her best chance at getting back to Oliver.

* * *

Anyone good at making cover interested in making one for me? I'd really love to have one but I don't have any kind of editing program to do it on :(


	7. Chapter 6 - Best Laid Plans

**A/N:** For the purpose of this story Starling City is located on the West Coast, which makes sense if you look at season 1  & 2 when Starling City seems to be in the same place as Seattle (while it later apparently moves to somewhere around Chicago).

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

*Oliver*

* * *

Oliver was thinking about time travel, either backwards or forward in time, when his cell finally rang. The caller ID said; Thea.

"What you got?" he asked, praying his sister had something for him to go on.

"Mr. Queen," said a male voice, that was definitively _not_ his sister's, on the other side of the phone.

"Where is Thea?" he asked.

"Your sister is fine. We merely borrowed your sister's caller ID to make sure you took our call," the man said.

"Who are you?"

"You may call me Mr. Smith."

Oliver was beginning to wondered if this was a ransom call. Except he had no real money to offer any kidnapper. And the way Felicity had been taken made him sure they were aware he was more than just Oliver Queen.

"I didn't mean your name. I meant what is your interest in me."

"Don't play coy Mr. Queen. We both know is about Felicity Smoak."

"If you took her-"

"I did not Mr. Queen." Mr. "Smith" took a deep breath. "You asked who I am? Let's say I'm... a concerned citizen." There was another short pause. "A concerned citizen that can help you find Miss. Smoak. That is what you want, right?"

"Why?"

"Why? What?"

"Why do you want her found? How do you know she's missing?" Oliver asked.

"That's not important."

"It is to me."

"Let's just say we're interested in making sure her special skill set doesn't fall into the wrong hands." Oliver squeezed the phone so hard he worried it might crack as the man continued talking, "Something that has happened on several occasion since she met you. None have been serious, but subjects with special talents and skill sets are generally-"

"She's a person, not a skill set," Oliver interrupted.

"Whatever she is, it is in our interest to keep her out of enemy hands. You share this goal. This is why we propose we work together."

Oliver thought about if for a minute. He didn't like the detached way "Smith" was talking, knew the priority for Smith was making sure Felicity's "skill set" didn't end up in the wrong hands, not saving her life. But right then Oliver needed help, so took a breath and he said, "Okay."

"We will contact you with further information within the hour. Be ready." The line went dead.

Oliver took a deep breath. If Smith came through with a location he was going to need a weapon.

* * *

*Mr. Jones*

* * *

"We need to move up the time frame,"Mr. Darhk said to Mr. Jones through the phone. Mr. Jones stopped a few feet away from the industrial fridge that held Felicity Smoak.

"Are you sure sir?" Mr. Jones asked, even though he normally didn't question his boss. It just seemed strange. That the plan was changing. Mr. Darhk's plans never changed. They always went right on the first try.

"We have no choice. The plates on the car you were tailing them with came up in a database. I'd figured that without my daughter Mr. Queen wouldn't be quite as resourceful. Apparently he still has contacts within ARGUS. But don't worry. I've just put another plan in motion." It sounded to Mr. Jones as if Mr. Darhk liked this new plan better, whatever it was.

"Alright. I think I can get it all set up here in fifteen minutes," Mr. Jones said, not bothering to ask about what came after, about the new plan. He'd know about it when Mr. Darhk decided he should.

Mr. Darhk paused for a second. "No. Do it in an hour. Then blow the place."

* * *

 **A/N** : Oliver...Oliver... didn't Moira ever teach you not to trust strangers?


End file.
